Disclaimer: This Au fiction is unauthorised, and thje characters belong to J Whedon, Fox, UPN, Mutant Enemy.

A New Beginning

"Xander, this is where you are." Xander looked up to see Caridad standing beside the bus. He wiped the dip stick on a rag.

"This is where I am alright."

"Buffy, she is wanting to speak at you."

Xander shook his head at Caridad's fractured English and gently corrected her. She frowned.

"What is wrong with my English. You can understand it, si?"

Xander grinned. "I can understand it bueno. Now what did Buffy want to talk at me about."

Caridad shrugged. "Something about a phone call from a council that was blown up. It is all very strange."

"Well, you just tell her where I am and she can come and speak at me."

"I'm thinking she wants you to come to her."

"Well if I don't finish with this engine, we won't be going tomorrow." Xander turned back to the engine. "So she either comes here, or she waits."

Caridad ran off. Xander smiled, and replaced the dip stick into its slot.

"Xander," a very annoyed voice interrupted him when he was checking the connections between the hose and the radiator. He got down and turned to see Buffy standing there. She was not wearing her happy face. "I sent Caridad to get you."

"Which she did. I however was busy, and didn't see why I should suddenly be at every bodies beck and call."

"I so don't have time for this," Buffy complained. I'm trying to figure out what we're gonna do when we get to Cleveland. You think its easy, figuring out how we're gonna get a place big enough for all of us. Without you going behind my back to talk to the Council, which we have nothing to do with anyway."

"Well that's where you're wrong." Xander leveled an eye on Buffy. ""You're making plans for what we're gonna do in Cleveland?"

"Yes, well someone has to."

"I suppose that someone is you, Willow, Faith, and Giles. But not me?"

"Xander," began Buffy...

"No don't." Xander held up a hand "I can see it now. Xander should be kept in the dark, just like always. It's not like I expect you to change, and with all the Slayers around it's not like you really need me. So, what did you come up with?"

"Well nothing, but," Buffy paused and glared at him. "Xander, we do so need you."

"No you don't, at least not in the way I need to be. Which is why I took a job with the Watcher's Council."

"You are so going to be sorry you made that decision." Buffy glared at Xander as he joined the group around the fire. She was definitely not happy, and hadn't been since he had told her about the job and then refused to say any more until after supper that night. "Well, we're all here. Explain yourself?"

"What's there to explain Buff. They called me up. They offered me a job. I had nothing better to do so I accepted."

"Job," said Willow. "But that's great. Uhhh who's the job with."

"The Watcher's Council."

"The Council, but I thought they were blown up."

"Apparently not enough of them were," huffed Buffy. "They got back together."

"The Watchers Council?" spoke one of the Slayers. "Does that mean we get new Watchers?"

"No one gets a Watcher," snapped Buffy, glaring around at the girls. They just want to control us and we're better off without them." She turned back to Xander. "You hear that Xander. "Not one Slayer."

"How you going to stop it Buffy?" Xander gazed levelly at her. "The Council has money, contacts and resources. We got this bus, little money, no contacts, except for what Giles can come up with. You gonna lead a war against the Council. You might want to think about that, cause stuff is happening, evil isn't gonna be taking a holiday anytime soon, and is gonna be having a field day while the Council and the Slayers try to take each other out. That what you want Buffy? Cause if you do you got two ways to go, and neither way is going to be pretty."

"Oh, and what two ways are those?"

"One, you move against the Council, fighting them whenever and wherever you can. To do that you're gonna need a world wide organization. To do that in time to do the least amount of damage is for Willow to mojo compliance out of as many Slayers she can gain control over. "

"You said there was another way."

"You locate as many Watchers as you can and Willow goes black eye and kills em all."

"That's not an option Xander," hissed Buffy. "I,m surprised you even mentioned it."

"Just looking at the options." Xander grinned. So frighteningly that Buffy backed off a step without even realizing it. "There is a third, less drastic option."

"What would that be?"

"Willow reverses the spell. Does whatever the Shadow-Men did to suppress Slayer powers. Everything goes back to the way they were. With you and Faith being the Slayers, and everybody else being potentials."

"He's right B. One of the reasons I never wanted to be Boss, the one who has to make the hard decisions. We changed the world, made it better in some ways, worse in others.."

"Life isn't a bowl of cherries," Xander agreed. "The pits maybe, but not cherries."

"It doesn't have to be this way," insisted Buffy. "I didn't free them just to have them enslaved by the Council again."

Xander sighed and dropped his head. He had one last card to play, and it was the one card he didn't want to have to play. "Willow, is your laptop all fired up, and you got that satellite thing working, for the internet?"

Willow nodded, and hauled it out of her bag, and took about ten minutes to set it up. Xander handed her a piece of paper with a series of numbers.

Willow typed furiously. "Got it." She paused. "Xander, this is Homeland Security. Nobodies been able to hack into it yet."

Xander shrugged, and grabbed the computer, and typed in a series of alphanumeric characters. The screen blackened and came to life with a series of files. Willow watched until a series of familiar names scrolled up. Xander highlighted one name and a file opened.

"What would Homeland Security have a file on Buffy? She's not a security threat."

" ""They don't know that, and that doesn't matter, not really. She could be seen as one. You remember the Initiative?"

"Yes, but we shut that down. Riley said they weren't going to try that again."

"Moot point, and that report was written by Professor Mary Walsh. Discussing what she knew about the Slayer, and seeking permission to have her up on one of their operating tables. That permission was obtained with Cabinet approval no less. Fortunately the Initiative was shut down before they could act on it." Xander paused to let that sink in. "Yep our very own government, and if our government can imagine such a thing, you can bet others will, and with all those Slayers running around you can bet someone is going to make it happen."

"B-b-but I'm human...we're human."

"That would matter how? Man can be just as evil as demons, maybe even more so because they have a choice, and don't underestimate the depth's a man will go to if he thinks it may come down to an us or them choice. Or to hang on to power. Or what ever else he wants."

"You planning on taking over the world Buff?" Xander grinned crookedly. "Cause that's what you're gonna have to do."

Buffy sank to the ground and stared into the flames. Her idea to free the Slayers had been brilliant. Even Giles had said it was. But she had been focused on the fight. She had never thought about what would happen after, and it looked like nothing had really changed at all. Sure, she had freed the Slayers, but the Council, the ones who had suppressed their powers in the first place, was still going to be there. Controlling things, pulling their strings. She hated that.

"He's right B." Faith squatted down beside her. "What you did was right, but but it's a whole new world and we gotta deal.. Sides, once we're inside with the Council, maybe we can have more say with them, maybe even take them over." Faith shrugged "Bad as they are there's worse alternatives."

Buffy remained silent, and after a while Faith left to rejoin Robin. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she returned.

"Well Xander, congrats. You're the man. What do we do."

"That's up to you Buffy," Xander smiled with relief. "The Council is not going to try and enforce the old regime. There won't be any Watchers for those Slayers, that don't want them, and Watchers will be found for those that do, and they will be assigned as soon as possible. They do have some ideas that they would like you to think about."



"The Council has taken an option on the Cleveland Girls Reformatory, a sort of prison farm, or used to be a prison farm, located a few miles south of Cleveland. They're willing to run it as a Private School for Girls, beginning after the renovations have taken place. Giles would be the Headmaster supervising both normal and supernormal activities. Jordan would be the school administrator. Willow would have Watcher status, her main job would be helping to locate slayer. Her cover job, since she has some teaching experience, would be Librarian."

"What would I be doing."

"Janitor, Housekeeper, whatever needs done that doesn't require a teaching certificate."

"Oh that's nice," Buffy smiled. "Just up my alley, with all the loser jobs I've had. What would Faith be doing."

"She'd be running the Cafeteria. She's had a lot of experience in prison."

"Which means that they'll never let me work there."

"As long s you keep your nose clean they will."

"Don't matter I got a record, that's pop up sooner or later."

"Already taken care of."

"So Xander," wondered Willow. "You haven't told me what you are going to be doing."

"They didn't say," Xander shrugged. "I,m betting it'll have something to do with a hammer."